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I. E T T E R S T 0 A quiz before you shop, Stouffville Re: 81 jobs lost as Stoufli/ille gmcery stone closes Ori the heels of tlie anhouncement that Sobeys will be closing, I kick myself that I did not write my letter to theeditor sooner. Not that my little article or opinion could have made a difference, but the idea that an article could possibly get the entire Stouffville reader/shopper community thinking. Thinking about what it is we want for our community and how we, together, will achieve it! My community includes shops we can walk to. Whether a leisurely walk or an errand walk A walk to pick up a binhday gift, medical need, household need, grocery need or to simply browse. My community also includes local small businesses that give back to my family in one way or other. My eommunity, however, seems to be shrinking and our local economy becoming less self-sufficient. It is diminishing rapidly. In recent months we have lost many shops. some perhaps to large main street rental fees, some to the inability to compete with big box stores and some to road con- struction pains. No métter the subsequent cause, the root cause is lack of support from local shoppers. I_t-is no secret the 2006 opening of the largest Wal-Mart would hurt our small busi- The first one was noticed way back, the summer before I was to start high school. A friend pointed it out. Some fn’end. looking at the top of my head (he was sprouting up more than me and had a good View of the top of my cranium), he said, simply, “Hey, you've got a grey hair!” “I’ve got a what?" I said. “A a... grey hair!" he cried, in a state of excitement. It was like he was going to ride around the block on his bike, telling everyone in the neighbourhood i had a grey hair. And maybe he did. You’d think something bad had happened to me and .maybe I should go off and join the circus, where I would fit in. “And now, ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce, under the big top, the Siamese twins, the bearded lady, and the 13â€"year-old boy with a grey hair!" Thm’s kind of how you feel when someone points out an apparent flaw. one you really have no control ( )VC I" lETTERS POLICY Tho Sun-Trilme woicnmos your [mum All submissions must h(‘ In than 400 words and must inrludr‘ a daytime Iolophm uumlwr, name and addrt‘e ThP Sun Tribune rowrvvs tho right to publish or not publish and to edit for thin 'Stédjfiille'S’uhi Tfifiu'n'eI Emmy: (H 25, Wellé-cozfi‘ed Harper won by more than a hair My father, of course, looked like jmasondyvmg‘com Letters to the Editor The Sun-Tribune 6290 Main St. StoufMlle. 0N MA I67 have grey hair. Quite a bit of it, in fact. an MN INTERACTIVE MEDIA Marketing 8: Advertising Manager Dmvnn Andrm's Emmmm Editor I i m Mason TUNE My mother, well, she had redâ€" dish hair, usually. Sometimes it was brown. Other times it was almost black. In other words, she dyed it. I never really wondered why. It's just something she always did. Turns out she had grey hair. too. “a dad" from the earliest time I can remember. I never contemplated the thought that he once had most- lv brown or black hair. at a very young age. ()r so I quickly found out. I am not a genetics expert, but put grey and grey together and you don’t exactly come out with jet black. You can only yank out so many of them without ending up totally bald. Fighting it becomes pointless and today you are just happy there are men around like Richard Gere and George Clooney or that guy on American Idol two seasons ago, so going grey prematurely is not conâ€" sidered completely unattractive. lust mostly unattractive. \Mthin a few years there were more ()f these grey hairs sprouting from the top of my head. Mm}. I read an article years ago on THE EDITOR messes. It is happening to the degree it is because we are allowing it to take place. If we do not choose to spend our money at local retailers, where service is second to none against any big box store then we will leave ourselves with no other choices in the future. These lack of choices are already obvious. Wal-Mart's back-to-school commercial exemplified consciously and subliminally how our future will be: all, of us in the same jeans, same hoodie and same backpack I We will limit our choices, options and community conveniencos. Sad but true, we are harming our future by not seeing the bigger picture. We simply must support our downtown core and all local small business, particularly those that we know give back to our community. let’s tliink before our next trip to a big- box suppliers. Ask yourself three fundaâ€" mental questions; 7 0 Haye your children played on a team recently sponsored by the store or were the sponsors local small business? 0 Does shopping here help to sustain our local economy and community? 0 Can you, or moreover our seniors, walk there? We need our downtown‘and its small businesses to remain and thrive. But, remember, they need us to do so. Classified Manager Bonnie Rnndmu Anvmmsmc Retail Manager Dianne Mahonm 1 mnhnnmia‘vrmgrn m nrlm u (myrmg Si‘fiv‘i'iTribune PUBLISHER Ian Proudfoot 6290 Main St Stouffville, ON. MA 167 www.yod<regbn.com CORINNE NEWELL S’l'OUFPVILLE shampoo you would be able to use once and it would reverse the grey- ing permanently. It would shake loose the colour that's still in your follicles and your hair would be the colour it was when you were 7. Of course that product never came to market, as the rights were probably bought up by Clairol or one of the other companies that makes millions oil of people trying to hide their grey hair. I mention my lack of follicle pig- ment in the wake of the federal election. one that not a whole lot of people voted in. Not compelled by the issues? Frankly I heard as many people talk PRODUCTION Team Leader Sherry I )av 'IIIWI’} Bernie O’Neill AND Now, 1 WITH ONTARIO’S â€" ECONOMIC ‘ STATEMENT, HERE’S DWIGHT Mamba )mnno 508k“! Emma 1N Cum Debora Kelly DUNCAN about the leaders' looks and yes, their hair, as anything else. In recent years Stephen Harp- er’s hair has begun to turn grey, although, having grey hair myself, I didn't think he was looking that bad. I think it was more his haircut. a sort of helmet-head, as my sons would call it. It was as if he had fashioned his own hair to look like a toupee. Or that he had so much gel in there a protestor could whack him over the had with a placard and do no harm. 'lhat's actually a product I want to pitch on the Dragon's Den show. Gelâ€"met (TM). a new hair gel that, when used in large enough amounts, turns your hair into a nice firm bicycle helmet. Go over the handlebars and “boing”, your head bounces right up. No more annoy- ing chin traps to worry about. The news flash with Harper's hair was that, with about two weeks to go, he seemed to have gotten it styled a little bit. Shorter on the sides and I swear his stylist (he has a full-time stylist who travels with him â€" I'm not making this up) had darkened his hair. just a little. (I notice these things.) DISTle ’TH )N 905114072612 90 mxévcéco , :RéCx; “.5. :cmévc‘mca. VZ7<E~Z>Q< IfDI'I‘URI/‘l 054140-26] BUSINESS MANAGER DIRECI‘OR, ADVERTISING Robert Lazurko a DISTRIBUTION Nicole "Fletcher 40-8 A York Region Media (imup community ncwspapcr The Sunâ€"Tnbune. published every Thursday and Saturday. is a division of the Metroland Media Group Ltd. a wholly ownet subsidiary otTorstar Corporation. Metroland is comprised of 100 community publications across Ontario. The York Region Newspaper Group includes The Liberal. sewing Richmond HI” an Thornhill. Vaughan Citizen, lhe EraBanner ( Newmarket/ Auroral Markham Economist Sun. Georgina Advocate. York Region Business Times. North of the City. yorkregion com and York Region Printing. Which is fine. It's 2008 and if a male friend of yours wants to dye his hair or have orange highlights, there’s nothing wrong with that. Even if he looks silly. So long as he's comfortable with his hair. Still, it was interesting he would Change his look, even slightly. with only days to go in the campaign. Maybe a focus group said he needed to do something about his hair, and fast. Maybe he was trying to differentiate himself. SUHL‘I'ribune Speaking of orange. lack layton has his own genetic situation going on â€" baldness. And what's left is pretty grey. But he still looks good. And then there was Stephane Dion. who is 53 but has the hair of an 80-year-old. After all he's been through, I can understand why. I'm not sure if being grey and distinguished cost him votes or won him some. plain haircut and all. but if the. guy who came out on top employs a stylist fullâ€"time. I can't help but think Dion simply got outcoifled by his main rival. Now the party is looking for a new leader. preferably one with a nice head of hair. Too bad Frank K1008 isn't a Liberal. PREMIER a, YORK REGION innm. GENERAL MANAGER Bob Dean Wé/Eéfle